Edmonton Oilers at Boston Bruins

The Oilers fell to the Devils, 5-2, in their season opener on Saturday in Gothenburg, Sweden. The five goals allowed were tied for their most in a season opener since allowing nine in 1991-92.

Milan Lucic, Leon Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid each picked up a point on both Oilers goals in the loss to New Jersey. McDavid and Draisaitl finished first and second on the Oilers in points last season, while Lucic was fourth.

These teams split their two meetings last season, with the road team picking up a win in each game. Edmonton outscored the Bruins, 6-5, in the two games despite getting outshot 70-56.

The Bruins beat the Senators, 6-3, at home on Monday. Since losing to the Capitals 7-0 in their first game of the season, they've outscored their opponents 7-3 in their last two games, including 4-1 in the third period.

Patrice Bergeron recorded the fourth hat trick of his career, two of which have now come against Ottawa, and three of which have come in the 2018 calendar year. He has six points (4g, 2a) in the two Bruins wins this season.

The Bruins have scored first in both of their wins this season, and it was important for them last year, as well -- Boston was 29-2-6 (.865) when scoring first last year, the best record in the league. Edmonton's 14-29-2 (.333) record when allowing the first goal was 20th in the NHL.

BOSTON -- It is rather rare that a team spends several days in a city and then plays a hockey game on the fourth day.

But that is what the Edmonton Oilers have done this week.

After an eight-hour flight back from Sweden on Sunday following a 5-2 season-opening loss to the New Jersey Devils, the Oilers have been practicing in Boston in preparation for Thursday night's game against the Bruins.

"The results weren't what we wanted but the input and the process leads to results and we're more concerned about that right now," Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said Monday after his team practiced at the Bruins facility.

"We addressed some things here today in practice. I thought we had a good practice. We've got some work to do. We felt good coming out of the preseason. We gave a bit of it back in that first game but we'll work here in Boston and get ready to play a good team."

That good team was on a different ice surface in Boston on Monday, riding 11 points from Patrice Bergeron's line to their second straight win -- a 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

After getting blown out in their season opener at Washington, after the Capitals raised their Stanley Cup banner and Alex Ovechkin took one more spin around the ice with the Cup, the Bruins have scored 10 goals in wins at Buffalo and then at home against the Senators.

Bergeron had a hat trick and added an assist, David Pastrnak had two goals and two assists and Brad Marchand, who assisted on four goals in the win at Buffalo, had three more helpers Monday.

Bergeron missed the preseason with back spasms but has four goals and two assists in the last two games, the line posting 18 points in the two contests.

Asked if he will consider taking every preseason off so he can start like this, Bergeron said, "Probably not, after Washington's game. But after the last two, maybe."

As far as keeping himself sharp while not skating, he said, "there is a lot of mental parts of the game that you can still work on even though you're not on the ice. So I tried to work on those as much as possible and other than that, I think relying on your experience from the past is something that is important as well."

The Oilers have won each of their last three games in Boston and are 5-1 against the Bruins in their last six.

Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask, shelled from the opening loss in just 27 minutes, wasn't great Monday but was good enough to win, despite allowing three goals and two shots hitting pipes. He brings a 4-3-2 lifetime record, a 2.83 goals-against average and only an .898 save percentage in nine games against the Oilers.

Edmonton's Cam Talbot allowed four goals on 26 shots, former Bruin Milan Lucic and Leon Draisatl both had a goal and an assist and Connor McDavid assisted on both goals in Sweden.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, held out of practice Monday after getting banged up in Sweden and then went through the long flight, was back and expected to play Thursday night.

Talbot 5-2-0 with a 2.72 goals-against average and .922 save percentage lifetime against the Bruins.

The Bruins announced Wednesday that they are shifting Saturday night's game against the Detroit Red Wings to 3 p.m., allowing Boston fans to be home in time to watch the Red Sox face Houston in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.